merrion street

Commissioner, President, Director, distinguished guests, thank you for this opportunity to give the opening address at this Symposium on the day Commissioner Geoghegan Quinn formally launches the expanded and refocused Ryan Institute.

The Commissioner and the President have dealt most completely with the provenance of this Institute and with its antecedent and its patron and founder. I can only concur. They were great people with great vision. Today, it’s harder to be a person of vision, but, arguably, such people are more needed than before. So, I congratulate the University on the vision and effort involved in moving to where you are today.

I imagine most of you are aware that Ireland will once again hold the Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers in the first half of 2013.  During our Presidency energy matters will have a high priority and will be the theme of a meeting of heads of State and Government. I will be progressing a number of themes, or “dossiers” as we Europeans like to call them. One of these will be the role of technology and research in energy and related matters, including marine energy and climate change.

I will be hosting a major energy technology conference during our Presidency. It will be a conference focussed on the EU’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan, or SET-Plan for short. The SET-Plan is a most unusual animal in the EU zoo. It is a mechanism for providing high-level, strategic guidance to the EU’s energy research funding mechanisms, such as the Framework Programmes that people in this room will be familiar with. Its Steering Committee is jointly chaired by senior officials from Commissioner Geoghegan Quinn’s DG and from DG Energy, where our own Marie Donnelly fills the role.  The steering committee is already achieving synergistic results in its priority areas.

There are strong industrial and research initiatives fostered by the SET-Plan. By hosting this conference during our Presidency, we are sending a very strong signal that we place very high importance on energy and related research. I am today inviting Commissioner Geoghegan Quinn to join with me in launching this conference in Dublin on 7th May 2013.

However, I am not waiting until next year to place the role of energy and environmental research front and centre in my own and my Department’s thinking. In the coming days, two significant energy initiatives occur in Ireland.

The Executive Director of the International Energy Agency will be in Ireland tomorrow to perform two major official functions. First, Maria van der Hoeven, will present to Ireland the results of a major IEA review of Ireland’s energy policy. Every few years, the International Energy Agency reviews the energy policies of its member countries and makes recommendations, which member governments take very seriously. The previous government, (and I would like to acknowledge the work of my predecessor Eamonn Ryan who is here today), and my own have worked hard to implement the recommendations of the last review. This had things to say about energy research – basically, that we did good work, but in centres which were too small and not sustainable. I would like to think that the launch today of the new, improved Ryan Institute is one very significant step towards dealing with that issue.

The IEA Director’s second task will be to launch the 2012 IEA Energy Technology Perspectives Report. This is a very authoritative annual publication, which sets out the IEA’s view of the energy technology mix, under various scenarios, which will be in play up to 2050. 2050, mark you, not 2040 as is the horizon for today. The significance of this report is that it will help to specify the research needs for the developed world as a whole, and for individual member countries, including Ireland, which we should address in the intervening period. The Ryan Institute will, I am sure, play its part in getting us from where we are today to where we need to be by then.

The government that I am part of is working hard to preserve the ability to conduct appropriate research as we go through our period of austerity. There has been a Research Prioritisation Exercise, that our energy, marine and environmental experts have participated in, to do our best to ensure that the more limited resources that will be available in the near future can be applied to the areas of greatest national need.

In that regard I want to say in passing, I was very pleased to be in a position recently to confirm funding for the new Beaufort Building for your colleagues at IMERC, the Irish Maritime and Energy Research Centre, which is an unique joint initiative between University College Cork, the Cork Institute of Technology, and the Irish Naval Service. The new building will house laboratory and research facilities for UCC’s Coastal and Marine Research Centre, the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre and the Sustainable Energy Research Group. It is being funded by my Department, Bord Gáis and the UCC Glucksman Foundation and will be built adjacent to the National Maritime College of Ireland.

Some might raise eyebrows that I should reference investment in Cork at an event in NUIG, but I know it is well recognised amongst the scientific & research community that partnership is the name of the game and that strengthening research facilities in both Galway and Cork will be a win-win in ensuring a critical mass of activity in terms of ocean energy research in Ireland.   This Institute is firmly in the same space and it should be well positioned to undertake influential work of national and international significance that will both advance the understanding of these important areas and inform policymakers about effective strategies for implementation.

Of course, I should also mention that my Department, through the Geological Survey, funds activity here at the Ryan Institute through the Griffith Research Awards of which NUIG is the largest recipient.   This reflects the fact that NUIG and the researchers here led by Professor Colin Brown, have been to the fore in research work utilising the data from our national seabed survey and its successor – Infomar.

Our ocean is a national asset that supports a diverse marine economy with vast potential for Ireland’s marine enterprises and sectors as the Commissioner has just outlined in her address. There is a €1,200 billion global marine market for seafood, tourism, oil and gas, renewable ocean energy and new applications for health, medicine and technology.

The Government is determined to ensure that our ocean resources are a key component of our economic recovery and sustainable growth, generating benefits for all our citizens. In 2007, Ireland generated 1.2% of GDP from its ocean economy, supporting about 1% of the total workforce. We can achieve substantially more. Our ambition is to double the value of the marine economy to 2.4% of GDP by 2030.

So, later this month the Taoiseach will launch Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth, an integrated marine plan that will set out a roadmap for the Government’s vision, goals and actions to enable our marine potential to be realised.

The plan sets out the shared vision of a thriving maritime economy that will be a key element of our overall economic recovery and return to sustainable growth, generating benefits for all our citizens, supported by coherent policy, planning and regulation and managed in an integrated manner.

For understandable reasons responsibility for marine matters is spread across a number of government departments and agencies. The plan will seek to ensure government departments work together more efficiently and effectively on the diverse issues related to the marine. It is designed to make a valuable contribution to getting the environment right for investment and to stimulate the private investment that is essential to achieve our targets.

A key step in developing the plan was to gather the widest possible source of ideas and opinions through inclusive consultation. Early in 2012, a consultation document was launched. One hundred and ninety-two submissions were received from a wide range of stakeholders. This public consultation has stimulated a public debate on the marine in Ireland, looking at our vast resources and marine potential as we never did before. The views from the consultation have informed and shaped the document.

This audience needs no reminding that we have significant strengths in Research, Technology, Development and Innovation and a growing international industry base centred on ICT and Life Sciences. These talents, coupled with an indigenous strength in marine science and technology, provide the means to enable smart, knowledge-based enterprises targeting globally traded products and services in existing and new markets.

And the enabling infrastructure – ports, piers, electricity grid, research infrastructure – is essential for harnessing our ocean wealth at national, regional and local levels.

The plan has of course been framed within the context of what is happening on the broader global and EU levels, particularly the Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union, in recognition of the contribution the ‘blue economy’ can make to economic growth and the need for appropriate policies, strategies and funding mechanisms.

Cross-sectoral integrated marine policy, planning and decision-making, at the various levels of governance, are a vital component of harnessing our ocean wealth. More efficient and effective public services, the removal of inappropriate impediments, the provision of a robust planning and licensing framework underpinned by robust legislation and regulation can all support sustainable development and create the needed degree of certainty and stability for business and consumers.

We need to promote and raise awareness amongst the public, investors and entrepreneurs that Ireland is open for, and a good place to do, marine business.

I should not let this occasion pass without referring to the fact that there will soon be a new Energy White Paper. The Irish energy world has changed very much since our last White Paper in 2007, and we need a new energy policy framework for the short and medium term. Energy research will be a part of that; if you have, as a significant energy research institute, views that you would wish to be considered, please address them to the Energy Coordination Division of my Department before the end of September.

Finally, the recovery of this fine country, temporarily brought to its knees by dereliction of duty and banking arrogance, will be achieved by dint of the intellectual capital that is fostered in this fine Institute and places like it. Partly, that has always been the case – even when poor, the Irish were always well educated, but there is another reason. It is clear that, as a nation, we did not manage the fruits of the Tiger Economy years well; we did not invest the returns in the appropriate national infrastructure to allow our economy to weather the current economic storms. We did, however, have enough sense to continue to value our intellectual capacity. I know this did not mean that every school building was as it should be, but it did mean that we consistently produced Young Scientists who starred at European level.

This university has a very active student energy body, which is both a tribute to them and a guarantee for the future of this Institute.

I’m very pleased to have been able to be here on this important day. I wish the Ryan Institute well in its important mission. I thank everyone who has helped to make today possible.